Using sound to
improve aircraft performance at
low speeds: “A Qantas aerospace engineer has found a
way to make small planes safer and more efficient by
turning their wings into flying speakers that can
beat out a tune.”

“In claiming one small inch for the sounds of the
natural world, without intrusion from the racket of man,
Hempton, 52, hopes to preserve the quiet of miles of
wilderness backcountry in Olympic National
Park.”

While scientific literacy has doubled over the past two decades,
only 20 to 25 percent of Americans are “scientifically savvy
and alert,” he said in an interview. Most of the rest “don’t
have a clue.” At a time when science permeates debates on
everything from global warming to stem cell research, he said,
people’s inability to understand basic scientific concepts
undermines their ability to take part in the democratic process.

I can sympathize, this is something I encounter more and more
as I try to explain acoustical concepts to lay people – for
example, people don’t understand concepts like
decibels
and
A-weighting
so they dismiss these metrics even though they can be very
effective at predicting
annoyance
from noise.

But in the end, as a consultant, it’s my job to help
people to understand these things. But sometimes I wish
it was just a bit easier.